Reflecting on the future of shopping centres and addressing their decline in visitors, MVRDV's Heuvelkwartier design proposes converting Eindhoven's Heuvel shopping venue into a green cultural quarter. The project brings together retail, culture and recreation, expanding the existing buildings while transforming the roofs into a park. The proposal also expands the Muziekgebouw with a stacked cultural building encased in a "glass mountain", creating a new landmark for Heuvel.
The project is the result of a plan to create a sustainable redevelopment vision for the outdated Heuvel shopping centre and the music venue located within it. MVRDV's project reshapes the site around a mix of retail, cultural and leisure activities, revitalising the shopping experience while also providing the city of Eindhoven with a new cultural destination. Furthermore, the project establishes a better connection between the urban block and the surrounding urban fabric, replacing the shopping centre's covered passages with open streets. Adding to the area's attractiveness, the roofs would become accessible and feature vegetation, contributing to the greening of central Eindhoven.
Our vision is an open and accessible shopping, residential, and cultural quarter. We achieve this by radically opening up the existing buildings, transforming the complex into seven new city blocks, and expanding upwards from the roofs. Our goal is to make the complex attractive again for all the people of Eindhoven who want to shop and go out while at the same time ensuring interaction with the inner city. In our vision, the area will have a totally different allure. - Winy Maas
Above the existing Muziekgebouw, the proposal envisions a stack of volumes, allowing the music venue to expand its program, with the building's foyers open to the public to work and relax during the day. Dubbed "the Music Mountain", the new structure creates a new and necessary landmark for the Heuvel. "Culture makes a city attractive, and a city as fast-growing as Eindhoven deserves a central music venue that is more visible", says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas.
The vision received a positive review from the Municipality of Eindhoven, paving the way for a feasibility study, expected before the end of the year. The project is the latest in a series of designs where MVRDV addresses the future of retail in the age of online shopping, from the Marble Arch Hill, a temporary installation that aims to entice visitors back to London's Oxford Street to the Tainan Spring in Taiwan, a green oasis built on the foundations of a half-demolished shopping mall.
